Of Trucks and Military Men
by revivingophelia
Summary: Chloe's truck is a little different... Smallville/Transformers crossover. Set after 2nd Transformers movie and veers off from Smallville canon around season 8. Originally posted to my live journal in January 2010.


Title: Of Trucks and Military Men

Author: Karen U/revivingophelia

Pairing/Character: Chloe Sullivan, Major Will Lennox, Ironhide

Disclaimer: No one you recognize belongs to me

Rating: PG/K+

Summary: Chloe's truck is a little different...

Spoilers: for Smallville, kinda my own future world that veered off sometime in season 8 or 9. Let's say Chloe's about 25 and has been working for the League a few years. For Transformers, it's set after the second movie. Also, in my world, Lennox is divorced. My theory is that, in the first movie, his wife and kid were clearly a focus for him, but in the second film, they were never even mentioned, so I'm pretending he got divorced between the first and second movie. This was written before the third movie, so pretend it doesn't exist.

Warnings: none, really.

**Originally written and posted to my livejournal in January 2010.**

* * *

It wasn't until just around sunset that she noticed something strange.

Her life wasn't what anyone could consider normal, but the past few days had been nice and quiet, something she didn't get to enjoy very often, at least not in recent years, so it was now all the more appreciated when she got those quiet moments. As she looked out the window of her home, however, she got the feeling that her quiet time might be coming to an end.

The small blonde frowned as she looked out the window, eyeing the man that was standing in her driveway... A man that appeared to be talking to the large black truck that she had acquired some weeks ago. Chloe stood there quietly for a moment, then shook her head. He couldn't *know*. Nobody *knew*. Or maybe they did.

Chloe's first instinct was to reach for her gun, and after a moment, she found herself wondering how it was that she'd come to a point where it was an instinct for her to reach for a weapon... Of course, she knew the answer to that. Years of being surrounded by meteor-infected people that misused their abilities combined with the past few years of working for the Justice League as it began to spread across the country and help the world meant her life was anything but safe and easy. But the man outside didn't seem to be carrying any weapons of his own, and the truth was, she knew that if he was dangerous, she didn't really have anything to worry about. So, taking a deep breath, the small blonde went to her door and stepped outside, slowly coming from the porch down to her driveway, pasting a look of polite curiosity on her face.

"Can I help you?" she questioned, and the man jerked slightly, something in the way he instantly tensed and almost as instantaneously relaxed once he saw her making her think he was a fighter. Given the short hair and how he stood ramrod straight, she couldn't help but wonder if maybe he was military. He flicked a quick look at her truck, then opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, someone else spoke.

More specifically, her truck spoke. "It's alright, Major Lennox. She knows," the large black GMC truck informed the man, the use of a title telling Chloe that she had been right about thinking that he was military.

The man - Major Lennox - sent a surprised look at the truck. "She knows? I thought you guys were trying to keep yourselves hidden-"

"They're not exactly a huge secret anymore, you know. Not after the attack last year. Granted, a lot of what happened at the pyramids was glossed over, but people know about the existence of the Autobots and the Decepticons," Chloe said calmly, and the man sent the truck an exasperated look.

"You're great at keeping your identity a secret, Ironhide. Really," he said, and Chloe laughed.

"He doesn't need to worry about me telling anyone. I'm a really good secret keeper. And you're the one that was standing in my driveway talking to my truck. Not exactly covert."

"She does have a point," Ironhide put in, and Major Lennox shot another look at the Autobot.

"We'd tried to signal you, and you weren't answering," he stated, and Ironhide made a slightly annoyed sound.

"I know I wasn't. But you don't understand. Miss Sullivan needs me here," he said, and Chloe lifted her brows as she looked at him.

"Hey, don't put this on me. I didn't know anyone was signaling you. If they need you-"

"You need me, too," the robot said. His next statement was directed toward Lennox. "She's very hard on cars."

Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. "That's not all my fault."

"What happened to your last vehicle?" Ironhide questioned, and the blonde woman glared.

"That was Batman's fault. He crushed it with that stupid tank of his," Chloe declared. The truth was, Bruce had been sorry for destroying her car, but it had been in the name of fighting crime and he'd offered to buy her a new one. Instead, Ironhide had shown up, and she'd never known for sure just how it was that he'd known about her and what she did... And how many of her vehicles had been destroyed in the past few years.

"And the one before that?"

"So I shouldn't have let Lois borrow my car."

"And before that?" Ironhide continued, and Chloe made a face.

"That car bomb may not have been meant for me-"

"Car bomb?" Lennox echoed, shock on his features, and Chloe looked over at him... Really looking at him this time, taking in how good-looking he really was. Tall and pretty lean, with dark hair and eyes that looked like they might be dark as well. It was difficult to tell in the fading light, the sun sliding lower and lower in the sky as the pinks and oranges from the sunset faded into darker and duller tones.

Suddenly aware that they'd fallen into silence and that Major Lennox was staring at her much the same way she'd been gazing at him, Chloe shrugged and averted her eyes. "I'm a reporter. Sometimes I make people angry."

"So much that they bomb your car?"

"I have a complicated life," she replied. "Of course, you came here looking for a giant alien robot, so I'm guessing you have a complicated life as well."

He eyed her for a moment, then nodded. "I guess I do." His gaze moved almost deliberately to the truck. "Ironhide, I wouldn't have come here if it wasn't important-"

The truck almost seemed to sigh. "I know you wouldn't," Ironhide conceded. "I'll hear you out," he said, and Chloe stepped back a little, glancing at the man and the alien.

"I'll leave you two alone. I'm sure whatever you're discussing is... classified," Chloe said, then looked at the truck. "Make sure to tell me goodbye before you leave."

"What makes you think I'm leaving?"

"Because I doubt he'd come looking for you if it wasn't an emergency, and you wouldn't leave your friends in a lurch if they needed you," the blonde declared, turning to head back to the house, but pausing to look back at the man. "It was nice to meet you, Major Lennox."

"Will."

"Excuse me?"

"My first name is Will," he said, and she nodded.

"It was nice meeting you, Will. I'm Chloe," she told him, then turned to leave, heading back to the house, but still able to hear the words that Ironhide said to the man.

"I've been here for several weeks, and after getting to know Miss Sullivan, I must say... She'd be perfect for you, you know," the truck said in an undertone, and Chloe couldn't stop the hitch in her step, couldn't stop herself from looking back over her shoulder for the briefest of moments, her eyes locking with those of Lennox, but then she shook herself slightly and went inside, refusing to let herself look back again as all of Ironhide's sly comments about her love life - or lack thereof - over the past few weeks came back to her, and their real meaning hit. Something told her that Ironhide had known who was most likely to come looking for him if he ignored that signal...

And that same something told her that this wasn't the last she'd see of Will Lennox. Not if Ironhide had any say in the matter, anyway.

The End


End file.
